Does the Group Leader Travel Free on a Pilgrimage?

Yes. The person who organizes a pilgrimage travels at no cost. It does not come out of your pocket or your parish budget, and it is not a discount you have to negotiate for. Complimentary places come from the airlines, hotels, and coach operators we book on your group’s behalf, which is long standing practice in group travel.

Here is where those places come from and what yours includes.

Group travel is booked differently from individual travel. When we contract a block of air seats, hotel rooms, and coach space for a group, our suppliers allow a number of complimentary places alongside the paying ones. Airlines provide them on group air contracts, hotels on group room blocks, and the same applies to coach operators and many of the services we arrange on the ground.

That allowance is why your place costs nothing. You still earn it, by the size of the group you bring, but it comes from the suppliers rather than from anything added to what your pilgrims pay.

Most groups use a ratio of one complimentary place for every 10, 15, or 20 paying pilgrims. Your account executive will walk you through the options and confirm the number for your pilgrimage in your proposal, so you know exactly where you stand before you announce anything to your parish.

Because the allowance follows the size of the booking, a larger group earns more places, which is how a chaplain, a musician, or a co-leader often travels at no cost alongside you. If you need more places than your group earns, tell your account executive early and we will look at what is possible.

Your place includes the same land package every pilgrim receives, on a double occupancy basis, along with group airfare on the same itinerary as your group.

A few practical details worth knowing:

Chaplains are given single rooms. A priest traveling as chaplain is working, hearing confessions, and keeping his own prayer, and a shared room does not serve that.

A single room can be added. If you would rather not share, a single supplement can be added at the same rate any pilgrim would pay.

Business class is priced separately. Some leaders fly business, and it can be arranged, but the cost varies enough by route and season that we price it per trip rather than pretending there is a standard figure.

Personal expenses stay personal. Souvenirs, meals outside the group program, and anything else you choose on your own are yours, exactly as they are for every pilgrim.

You earn it. Organizing a pilgrimage is real work, and leading one is more work still. You are recruiting your parish, answering questions for a year, and then spending the trip itself on duty rather than on vacation. Priests come home from pilgrimages having heard confessions in a hotel lobby at midnight and having celebrated Mass at an altar their parishioners will remember for the rest of their lives.

The complimentary place exists so that the person doing that work is not paying for the privilege as well. We would rather you spend your energy on your people than on whether you can afford to be there.

It costs nothing to lead a pilgrimage with Canterbury. There is no deposit, no minimum you personally guarantee, and no financial risk to you if the group does not come together the way you hoped.

That is worth stating clearly, because it is the fear that keeps most priests from ever starting. See what happens if a pilgrimage does not fill.

If your numbers are not landing where you hoped, we will tell you early rather than late and look at the options with you. The surer way to earn more places is to fill the group, and that comes down to promotion. See how to promote a parish pilgrimage.

Can a married couple lead together?

Often, yes. If your group earns two complimentary places, both of you can travel at no cost, and couples make effective co-leaders because they recruit through two networks instead of one. If only one place is available, the second traveler pays the standard rate.

Can I give my complimentary place to someone else?

This comes up most often when a leader wants to bring a second priest or a deacon as spiritual support. Talk to your account manager. It is usually workable.

Does my place make the trip more expensive for my pilgrims?

No. Your place comes from the allowances our suppliers provide on group bookings, not from an increase in what your pilgrims pay.

How many pilgrims do I need for a free place?

It depends on the ratio set for your pilgrimage. At one-in-15, a group of 15 paying pilgrims earns one complimentary place and a group of 30 earns two. Most parish groups travel with 20 to 40 pilgrims, which typically means one or two places.